rich
Your headache pattern is a perfect match for "cluster headaches" -- more common in men and starting later in life that migraines. Try some 'net research on cluster headaches. Also, saw some posts that straight oxygen is good for stopping them... Ron
I'm a cluster head, and a woman.
When my idiot of a GP finally sent me to the headache clinic, I went there having been told that I had cluster headaches. The neuro said that while the intensity and locations of the pain were comparable, there are some other substantial differences. Cluster headache sufferers often have one or both eyes overflow with tears and they usually have sinus congestion on the same side(s) as the headache. The most important difference is the headache-free gap between each set, or cluster, of headaches. If I remember him correctly, he said that migraine sufferers don't have such gaps, certainly not as regular in duration. While smoking and drinking can aggravate cluster headaches, not smoking and drinking does not mean that your headaches can't be clusters. (Sorry, that's not the best sentence I've ever written, but it's late, I have a migrainestilland have taken all of my meds and I'm not firing on all cylinders right now.) The neuro said that my "severe atypical migraines" presented him with a challenge but that I should be glad I have that condition rather than cluster headaches because there are more drugs available that fight or prevent migraines and that in men, migraines tend to diminish I their 40s. I'm 43 now and am peering through the mists of time to try to see what things are like when I'm 50. <g Jeff
In a message dated 7/1/99 1:25:34 AM Central Daylight Time, sirius@... writes: This is what I have been told too..that 40 is the age that migraines peak and then start to deminish...I'm 39 and want a date from the Nuero LOL as to when the migraines will be gone because my Grandmother had them up until her death of stroke at the age of 84 Jan :*)
You mean I can expect 10 more years of this? Yikes......
My neuro said that it's in men that the "diminish in their 40s" applies to and that's what's typical, not guaranteed. Whether there's an age at which they diminish in women, I don't know. My mother had them into her early 60s and my grandmother had them into her mid 90s. My 80+ uncle still has them, but not very often. Jeff